Confrontation at Crimea Air Base Defused—For Now

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine—Russian troops fired warning shots over the heads of unarmed Ukrainian soldiers trying to return to work at a captured airfield here Tuesday—illustrating the potential for escalation of violence in Crimea the longer the tense situation persists.

The opposing commanders defused the rising tensions at Balbek air base without any fighting. The Ukrainian commander, Col. Yuli Mamchur, said that after hours of...